By Cheryl Jahn

“Disbelief” reaction to political travel scandals

Jan 4, 2021 | 4:28 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – One-by-one in recent weeks, more than a dozen federal and provincial politicians in Canada have confessed to having travelled outside the country over the holidays, something public health officials have been asking Canadians not to do. They include politicians from Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.

“I guess I’d have to be honest and say that it’s almost a sense of disbelief that, during a pandemic, people would think that it was appropriate to make a decision to leave not only their community but their province and their country,” says Shirley Bond, Interim Leader of the Liberal Party.

BC is one of the few province’s that hasn’t had to take action, much as the Premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney did today.

On his Facebook page, he wrote: “Millions of Albertans have made real sacrifices over the past 10 months to help keep each other safe. They are right to be angry about people in positions of leadership vacationing outside of the country. Last Friday, I took responsibility for not having been clear enough with members of the government caucus and others in positions of leadership that they should not travel abroad. Over the weekend, I have listened to Albertans who are sending a clear message that they want real consequences for these actions. That is why I have accepted the resignation of Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard and have asked my Chief of Staff Jamie Huckabay to step down, which he has done. I have also accepted the resignation of MLA Jeremy Nixon as Parliamentary Secretary for Civil Society and MLA Jason Stephan from Treasury Board. They as well as MLAs Tanya Fir, Pat Rehn, and Tany Yao have lost their Legislature committee responsibilities. By travelling abroad over the holidays, these individuals demonstrated extremely poor judgment.”

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“I think for me, personally, the other disappointing part is that when something like that happens, the fallout isn’t just felt by the people who participated in that action. But the reaction is ‘Well, there we go again. It’s politicians. They’re all the same.’ And that is such a devastating thing when that happens because we’re busy trying to encourage great people to run for public office.”

She says these kinds of action tar and feather all politicians.